A Champion of Service

VALDOSTA -- Excellence Award winner Sharon Butcher is
convinced that customer service begins with a genuine desire to
help others that is strengthened with respect and fueled by
honesty. Her father taught her that.

“My Dad taught me and lived the example of how to treat people --
with respect, honesty and accountability,” said Butcher, who is the
department manager for Campus Mail Services. “With 59 years of
trials and many errors, I have come to understand I want to strive
to be honest, respectful, accountable and constantly remind myself
I have only walked in my shoes.”

The university community honored Butcher with the Excellence in
Customer Service -- awarded during commencement each year to a
classified staff member for his or her exceptional dedication to
others. Customer service, Butcher said, is key to professional
success and institutional health. Campus Mail interacts with a
variety of faculty, staff, students and visitors -- and is
committed to treating each of them with the upmost consideration,
she reiterated.

“We receive many calls from people who have been forwarded on only
to find we are unable to help; but instead of passing them on, we
stay with them or call them back with the answer or the person
needed to help them,” Butcher said.
Butcher began working at VSU in 1995, and has since woven herself
into the fabric of the university as part of the Council on Staff
Affairs (COSA). During the past five years, Butcher has held the
position of treasurer, public relations officer, chair elect and
chair. Even after her COSA term expired, she continues to be
regarded as one of the organization’s most active volunteers.

“I love working for a university, more specifically VSU and the
creative and driven staff who have set their performances to a high
standard,” she said. “I am so fortunate to have what I very
seriously and affectionately refer to "the best department at
VSU.”

The mother of two oversees VSU’s intensely computerized mail
operations, which dealt with 720,000 pieces of mail and $250,000 in
expenditures last year. Time that the department used to spend
sorting and labeling packages and envelopes is now spent tracking
shipments and inputting information into labeling machines.

“Our daily goal, which is met 99.9 percent of the time, is that
everything should go out the day we receive it,” Butcher said. “Due
to certain procedures we have implemented over the years, we were
able to save VSU $16,788 in postage savings last year.”

Butcher hasn’t always been in the mail industry. Prior to her time
at VSU, she served as a crochet pattern tester for two major
published designers. Her work has appeared in several major craft
books and magazines.

“It was a very demanding but rewarding process,” Butcher said. “I
would receive the project of yarn and pattern and within a time
frame had to complete it while determining if the pattern was
correctly written or had typographical errors. When completed, the
project had to be camera ready because it was the model. I loved
the challenge.”